Since the start of President Donald Trump’s second term, LGBTQ rights have faced a series of set-ups, and discussions about trans athletes in competitive sports show that they are inclusive of inclusive, legal, political and social change.
However, two of the nation’s leading LGBTQ advocacy organizations — the GLAAD and the Human Rights Campaign — have refused to compromise on the stance that transgender people, including transgender women and girls, should not be hampered by their ability to play.
In recent months, the US Olympic and Paralympic Committee and the National Association of University Athletics have overturned courses on once inclusive policy and have imposed new restrictions on trans athletes in clear hopes of enforcing an executive order from the Trump Vance administration that would ban transgender women and girls from competing in sports. The order has not yet been enforced and may not be able to withstand legal scrutiny.
“First and foremost what we see from organizations like the USOPC and the NCAA, pre-compliant with Trump’s executive order,” said Shane Diamond, director of communications and advocacy at Glaad. “It is worth noting here that executive orders are not actually laws or policies. Most executive orders from the administration are praised press releases.”
Diamond, a transgender man and former university athlete, described the policy change as “disappointing” and “irritating.”
“These are organizations that have historically spent so much time creating fair and comprehensive policies,” he said. “It’s a shame to change our attitude to include trans athletes, especially trans women, seemingly all night.”
Stakes are more than iconic. Last week, Pete Battigegg, one of the Democratic Party’s most influential leaders, insisted on a compromise. This is a reversal of the position held by the Biden Harris administration, where he served as Secretary of Transportation.
“I think the approach starts with compassion,” Buttigieg said in an interview with NPR. “Comfort compassion for trans people, compassion for their families, especially the young people who are experiencing this and those who don’t know what this means to them. And they’re just taking everyone seriously.”
For many LGBTQ advocates, such statements indicate a disturbing shift in democratic messaging. Diamond, for example, had problems with the argument that comprehensive policies would raise the issue of fairness. Imposing the importance of the gay Democrat statement, he said “I don’t know why Pete Battigegg is talking about transporting to sports,” adding that the way politicians talk about these issues could have a major impact on LGBTQ people, especially young people.
“We called it heartbreaking to be in an age where the right-wingers halted empathy and inclusion and tried to use vulnerable children to divide Americans,” said Laurel Powell, communications director for the Human Rights Campaign.
Both Powell and Diamond rejected the suggestion that LGBTQ organizations should either readjust their approach or ease their demands for full inclusion in the sport.
“Sacrificing vulnerable communities is by no means a victory strategy,” Powell said. “It’s time to be bold, stand up to the bully and say it clearly. We refuse to compromise freely.”
“Solving a problem and solutions”
For Diamond and Powell, the current backlash is not the result of widespread public discomfort or justified debate, but the result of years of creation, a product of right-wing strategies, seeking to use trans athletes as scapegoats to serve on the broader agenda.
“It has been said that conservatives and Republicans have been obsessed with banning and banning trans people from sports for the past four or five years is an aggressive solution to the issue,” Diamond said. “There’s no acquisition of trans people in sports.”
The numbers are responsible for that. Despite more than 20 years of policy allowing trans participation in international competition, the International Olympic Committee has openly documented only two transgender Olympic athletes. “There could have been 50,000 Olympians between 2003 and 2021,” Diamond said. “Two of them were openly trans. This idea that trans women come and dominate women’s sports is a myth.”
Still, the ban is multiplying. 29 states have passed laws restricting trans athletes’ participation in school sports. In some cases, these measures were supported by legal settlements mediated by universities such as the University of Pennsylvania and by the Trump administration’s Department of Education.
The White House, Trump herself, and Education Secretary Linda McMahon celebrated these agreements. This included a clause that would revoke the title and award won by transgender Swimmeria Thomas, in the case of U-Pen, banning trans athletes from future competition.
According to Powell, right-wing legal organizations that defend alliance freedom have “moved to using sports participation as an on-ramp, banning access to public spaces, restricting access to healthcare for transgender people of all ages, banning books and censoring curriculum.”
“Faced with that infinite attack on equality, we will continue to defend freedom: the freedom that everyone learns, plays, loves, and lives without apologies.”
Diamond emphasized that fairness debates do not retain water and rely on assumptions that cannot withstand scrutiny.
Opponents of transinclusion often cite fairness as their primary concern, arguing that cisgender women do not need to compete with athletes assigned males at birth. However, Diamond said such arguments depend on false assumptions and pseudo science.
“It’s sexist and misogynistic to assume that anyone who was assigned a man at birth will be essentially better, faster and stronger than the person who assigned a woman at birth,” he said. “Do you know tall people who are not adjusted? Do you know strong people who are not fast? They have different sports, different bodies, different assets.”
Pointing to two athletes from the US Women’s National Rugby Team (one 4’11) and other 6’3-inch photos, Diamond said, “not the best body type for all success in all sports.”
The role of the media
Diamond and Powell pointed to the oversized role of the media in shaping the story around transgender athletes. Often in a way that perpetuates harmful myths.
“A lot of the news Americans are consuming comes from right-wing or conservative outlets,” Diamond said.
Diamond said Glaad’s media watchdog work is more important than ever, especially in a misinformed environment.
“It’s scientifically inaccurate and decisively wrong for trans women to say that men are competing,” he said. “Trans women are women. Trans men are men. And they deserve to be treated and included in that way.”
That message is the foundation of GLAAD’s public education campaign.I’m here,” a partnership with terrestrial media designed to raise the general empathy of trans people by highlighting the normality of their lives.
“When you tell people that being trans is authentic, you can see more empathy and support for policies that affect trans people,” Diamond said. “Trans people, like everyone else, are trying to buy eggs and buy mortgages.”
Like GLAAD, human rights campaigns are investing in storytelling-based public education initiatives. Last week, HRC said:American Dream Tour“A multi-city journey through primarily “red” and “purple” states to amplify LGBTQ+ stories, address the realities of community HIV and healthcare, and graph the powerful path to equality.”
Powell emphasized that the path to restoring support for transgender rights is carried out through personal connections and shared humanity. “When people know or hear people talk about trans people, they’re likely to support full equality and are willing to fight it and vote,” she said.
“History and data tell us that the best disinfectant for right-wing lies is our humanity,” she said. “When people know or hear trans people talk, they’re more likely to support perfect equality, fight for it and vote for it.”
Movement under pressure
Despite their determined tone, both Powell and Diamond acknowledged the weight of the moment.
“We’re in a very interesting media and political landscape,” Diamond said. “And much of the airtime given to include trance in sports actually comes from people who oppose it. But of course we’ll fight back as an organization dedicated to the perfect equality of LGBTQ people.”
Still, Powell warned that political convenience would not allow the movement’s strategy to be promoted.
“The path to victory is based on the courage that the right wing refuses to make us oppose each other,” she said. “We don’t win by compromising who deserves freedom.”
Diamond also warned against framing the issue as Democrats’ political responsibility.
“If only trans people care about trans rights, we’ll lose,” he said. “We all want politicians, especially speaking from a place of inclusion, understanding and acceptance. The way they talk about trans people has real consequences.”
In 2024, the Trevor project released the first study of this kind of study establishing a causal relationship between anti-trans rhetoric and suicide attempts among LGBTQ youth. Diamond said the research emphasizes the importance of how leaders talk about trans people, even in sports policy discussions.
“This is one of those ‘not about us without us’ moments,” he said.
Source: Washington Blade: LGBTQ News, Politics, LGBTQ Rights, Gay News – www.washingtonblade.com
